Tag Archives: art deco san francisco

This is the first house I’ve worked on with arches. Round, gentle ones. The style only existed at the front 2 rooms and we didn’t continue it into new areas. Things are trucking along ——> we’re now choosing paint colors and putting the deck on the back. Photos in this post are from the past month +. Above is the front living room where there was some water damage within the walls that had to be opened up. The mustard & ketchup colors are from the previous owners.Here’s some pink stuff lining the walls along the new stair from upstairs down to the first floor. The mid landing has doors to the garage, bathroom and wine cellar which will house 600+ bottles! Here’s the back at the first floor facing the yard. The space has 11′ high ceilings, with covered steel beams spanning across. The triple-panel bi-fold door by Sierra Pacific was installed at the back, which will open all the way to the side seen below – Outside is where the deck is being built, low to the ground. This corner area of the first floor is able to be closed off with massive pocket doors, and could be used as a guest room if need be. Otherwise it will be the TV room – which would be nice to close off and be dark for movie viewing! Back upstairs (and a few weeks later) here is the one span of guardrail we have in the house. Remember, this hallway used to continue over the hole that is now stairs. We came up with the angular pattern of this railing as a nod to the Deco traces in the house (plays nicely off those arches). It also slightly reminds me of the patterns in Kubrick’s Overlook Hotel in The Shining: OK it’s quite a stretch (but I did see these elevator doors at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite that inspired Kubrick)We saved most of the interior wood doors that were taken down and repurposed them – two were hung on a barn-door track here to separate the kitchen area from the dining room. The master bathroom, a soothing ode to white and Carrara. The tub is at the far end next to the walk-through shower. The room had an existing skylight that floods the room nicely. The hall bathroom is a mix of (3) blue 4×12 glass tiles, and almost-black porcelain. It has a deep L-shaped shower with a bench around the corner. This bench is exactly where the former hobbit-staircase used to wind down to the garage. Looking into the shower you almost feel pulled forward with the perspective force! Who could resist it? Stay tuned – more to come!

This otherwise ‘Marina-style’ house had some art-deco reminiscent details in it so that’s what I’m calling it. (marina-style typically has a garage and unfinished basement area at ground level with the living space on the second floor.) Look at the front: we didn’t make any changes here, I really wouldn’t know what to do without ripping off those tiles – or paint them charcoal grey – is that possible? My clients said that in their search for a home they liked yellow houses because they look happy – I like that thought!

The house had a few challenges, one was the redundant circulation seen above – you could walk down a hallway or take a parallel route through adjacent rooms to get to the bedrooms and bathroom at the back. Second, the only bathroom was big enough to be split into two (it had that typical low-ceilinged shower stall) Third, the stair was narrow and wound down into the garage. You had to walk through the garage to get to the tall basement space at the back.The previous owner installed a garage door to the yard which I liked, but we ended up redesigning with non-garage doors. The new owners wanted a better connection between floors, a finished usable first floor, master bath and new guest bath downstairs. I thought, who needs two hallways? and decided to drop the new stair directly down through the hallway floor. Here’s a view of the hallway, with the other rooms to the side after we opened up the wall. A view from the other end – – and then right after the floor was cut out and the new stair put in. Voila! Direct connection down with comfortable stairs, opened rooms and finishing out the first floor…still in progress..A view down to the lower floor to see the light coming in from the back yard. Stay tuned, more to come!